‘We’re here (in SG), we’ll debate you on national TV, and pay for your transport & meals to come meet us’ — local activists tell K Shanmugam

After the Ministry of Home Affairs issued an invitation to British billionaire Mr Richard Branson to a debate with Mr K Shanmugam on the country’s approach towards drugs and the death penalty, activists in Singapore said the Minister for Home Affairs and Law need not look far for someone to debate with.

It is those on the ground as well as those who have the most at stake, including activists and the families of inmates on death row, who may be more suitable to debate with Mr Shanmugam, wrote Ms Kokila Annamalai, a community organizer who has long been vocal about her opposition to the death penalty.

In an open letter to Mr Shanmugam on her Facebook account on Sunday (Oct 23), Ms Annamalai wrote, “Dear Minister K Shanmugam Sc, please pick on someone your own size, sir. If you’re looking for a fight, debate those here, on the ground, who’ve opposed your capital punishment regime most fiercely and consistently.”

The impassioned activist added, “We’re here, we’ll debate you on national TV, and we’ll pay for your transport and meals to come meet us, meet the communities we work with, meet the people you’re betraying with the death penalty. We don’t have the resources you do at our disposal, but we have clarity and conviction in our principles. Will you accept the challenge? Will you face your own people? Or are you afraid of losing to us?”

Fellow activist and writer Kirsten Han echoed the same sentiments in an Oct 23 Facebook post of her own, calling on Minister Shanmugam and the PAP government “to immediately halt executions.”

“If Shanmugam wants an in-depth, substantive discussion of the death penalty and drug policy, he doesn’t need to look so far away for engagement. He just needs to be more open to listening to people who are already here,” she wrote.

Lawyer M Ravi also spoke along the same lines in a comment on the Facebook page of CNA’s post on the article about MHA’s invitation to Branson.

“Mr Shanmugam should be speaking to lawyers and human rights activists and organisations on the ground who have stood steadfastly for years and years on their respective positions to abolish the death penalty. I have said this in the past too – I invite him to debate with me and others who share my stance and he is welcome to bring his team too,” he wrote.

The MHA released a statement on Saturday (Oct 22) seeking to clarify certain statements that Branson had made concerning Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, who was judicially executed on April 27, 2022.

Last year, Branson had joined the chorus of global voices urging Singapore to stay the execution of Nagaenthran on the grounds of his intellectual disabilities.

“The Singapore Courts held that Nagaenthran knew what he was doing and that he was not intellectually disabled,” the MHA wrote in its statement.

On Oct 10, the World Day Against the Death Penalty, Branson penned a blog post titled “What’s the matter with Singapore?”

“Singapore still finds itself on the wrong side of history is its continued, almost stubborn use of the death penalty, particularly for drug offences,” he wrote.

And at the end of the statement, the invitation to debate was given, with the MHA adding that the billionaire’s flight to and accommodation in Singapore would be paid for. /TISG

‘People are struggling with cost of living and you’re offering to pay this billionaire to debate with you?’ — Netizens react to MHA’s debate challenge to Richard Branson